{"id":15309,"date":"2010-10-25T13:11:34","date_gmt":"2010-10-25T17:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=15309"},"modified":"2010-10-25T13:11:34","modified_gmt":"2010-10-25T17:11:34","slug":"salone-50-year-old-baby-still","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=15309","title":{"rendered":"Salone: 50 Year Old Baby\u2026 Still\u2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2011, Sierra Leone celebrates 50 years of \u2018independence\u2019 from the United Kingdom.\u00a0 Should we be celebrating \u2018independence\u2019, or, should we be mourning our festering \u2018dependence\u2019 on the former colonial overlord, Britain?\u00a0 During the height of the Foday Sankoh-led \u2018rebel war\u2019 some ten years ago, we got so shamefully dependent on foreign sources for even our recurrent budgetary needs\u00a0 that a disgraceful 60% came from so-called \u2018development partners\u2019.\u00a0 Over the past four years or so, this has reduced to a less ignominious 40%.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Leader of the People\u2019s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), Charles Margai,<\/span><\/strong> is quoted in PEEP<\/span><\/strong> of October 23, 2010 as being derisive of his country thus: \u201cAlthough we are approaching 50, we still cannot feed ourselves.\u00a0 A 50 year old should be independent and should meet his\u00a0 own basic needs<\/strong>\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Even if not literally, but, in our mindsets, the governing elite is still tied to the umbilical cord of Mother Britain.\u00a0 When the new coalition government in Britain recently announced that it would scale down government expenditure, it sent jitters into the spines of the governing elite; enough for \u00a0our finance minister, Dr. Samura Kamara, to raise concerns that\u00a0 Britain\u2019s financial belt tightening should not lead to reduction in British aid to our country. \u00a0In 2009, 47.8 million British pounds flowed through the \u2018British-Mother\u2019s\u2019 umbilical cord to \u2018fetus-Sierra Leone\u2019.\u00a0 \u00a0It is only natural that the British\u2019s \u00a0DfID website does not have a high opinion of our country as evidence by these words:“Sierra Leone has amazing mineral wealth, yet 70% of its population lives in poverty \u2026<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Do we have to have British sponsorship for our recurrent expenditure, or, British aid for most of our developmental thrusts, if we are celebrating 50 years of our independence?<\/p>\n

Nigerian writer, Paul I. Adujie,<\/span><\/strong> in the 2009 article titled, \u201cThe Truth about Foreign Aid\u2026<\/span><\/strong>\u201d spits out his contempt for Western aid: \u201c\u2026.When it comes to foreign aid to Africa, Western nations take \u2026.non-African friends\u2026 to metaphorical Five Star Restaurants, treat these non-Africans to sumptuous 14 course meals of caviars, champagne, wines, desserts and at the end, their \u2018conscience\u2019 suggests photo opportunity of a feel good type; and in the full glare of CNN and BBC television cameras\u2026.Africans are portrayed in dire straits; genuflecting and picking up the leftovers with gratitude and appreciation with so much flourish\u2026.\u201d<\/em> Leftovers for Africans!!\u00a0 What we call in Krio \u2018wehreh\u2019 \u2013 food for the \u2018slaves\u2019 or the lowest of classes in the household.<\/strong> \u2018Na wehreh wate man dae gee we nar Salone\u2019!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

There appears a growing movement among some African educated elite questioning the logic of foreign aid from the richest countries to poor countries in Africa. In a letter published in the Daily Telegraph of Britain, August 22, 2010,\u00a0 several African leaders of thought (Andrew Mwenda<\/strong>Editor, Independent newspaper, Uganda<\/span><\/strong>; Franklin Cudjoe<\/strong> – Executive Director, IMANI Center for Policy and Education, Ghana<\/span><\/strong>; Kofi Bentil<\/strong> – Lecturer, University of Ghana and Ashesi University, Ghana<\/span><\/strong>; Thompson Ayodele<\/strong> – <\/strong>Executive Director, Initiative for Public Policy Analysis, Nigeria<\/span><\/strong>; Temba Nolutshungu<\/strong> – <\/strong>Director, Free Market Foundation, South Africa;<\/span><\/strong> Leon Louw<\/strong>– <\/strong>Law Review Project, South Africa<\/span><\/strong> ) saw what has raised alarm in Dr. Samura Kamara as an opportunity for radical overhaul of\u00a0 international relationship between the richest countries like Britain and poorest countries like Sierra Leone:\u00a0 \u201cThe parlous state of the public finances in Britain provides the perfect opportunity for British taxpayers to end their half-century-long experiment with \u2018development aid\u2019, which has, since its inception, stunted growth and subsidised bad governance in Africa\u2026.. A real offer from the British people to help our development would consist of the abolition of the Common Agricultural Policy, which keeps African agricultural exports out of the European marketplace\u2026\u2026.\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Zambian\u00a0 intellectual, the youthful Oxford-Harvard university-educated Dambisa Moyo, whose book \u2013 \u201c<\/em>Dead Aid<\/em><\/a>\u201d<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 earned rave reviews from conservative thinkers in the West last year,\u00a0 has a very simple message: \u2018that outside development assistance is at the root of Africa\u2019s underdevelopment and ought to be stopped quickly and totally if the continent is to progress.<\/strong> She is in favor of private-sector development, even if it comes from China, and inveighs against agricultural protectionism in the North that prevents trade from becoming an engine of growth\u2019.<\/p>\n

We need to penetrate the arcane language of finance and econometrics to grasp the relevance of such radical stance by\u00a0 some African thinkers. For us in Sierra Leone, agricultural export is not our problem.\u00a0 It is how much we get for our mineral exploitation \u2013 some of the richest grounds on planet earth. <\/strong> Over the past two weeks, our parliamentarians\u00a0 have been entrancing the populace on live T.V. with \u00a0lively debates on national issues on the President\u2019s speech to parliament. Pause.\u00a0 Challenge!!\u00a0 Let one of them randomly ask ten of their colleagues MPs this question: \u201cHow much is Sierra Leone getting from mining its diamonds\u2026?. Or, rutile?\u00a0 Or will get from mining its vast iron ore reserves?…\u201d<\/strong> I bet my old Mercedes: 90% of the MPs will not give accurate answers to those questions.\u00a0 The same for nearly all Civil Society Leaders.\u00a0 Winning my bet would be a sad manifestation of\u00a0 our \u00a050 year old babyish thinking.<\/p>\n

We have immense mineral wealth in our territory.\u00a0 We are not intense and persistent in scrutinizing mineral agreements that we enter into.\u00a0 We don\u2019t debate these agreements in our schools, churches, mosques, labour groups, youth groups, etc.\u00a0 We don\u2019t insist on setting up monitoring mechanisms as to how the wealth from our mineral wealth is being used.\u00a0 There is some hope once the Freedom of Information Bill in parliament becomes law we could empower the generality of the educated people to demand accountability and transparency from government \u2013 backed by peoples\u2019 power of the majority.\u00a0 Thus, it can be said that when we emulate Liberia to have a Freedom of Information law<\/span><\/strong> in Sierra Leone we will mutate from being \u201850 year old babies\u2019 into being real 50 year old adults\u2019<\/strong> \u2013 the best gift that our parliament can give the people of this country for our fiftieth independence anniversary celebrations.<\/p>\n

Another aspect of growing up from babyhood into adulthood in our country would mean working harder.\u00a0 And, contributing towards the common national pot – what tax theoreticians have termed as \u2018Contributive Justice\u2019<\/strong><\/span>.<\/strong> That is, all in the state called Sierra Leone enjoy from the proceeds of taxes \u2013 in the form of the military guaranteeing security from external aggression; the police ensuring security for normal civilize life to go on; we enjoy the roads, electricity and water supply \u00a0which government provides. These services are enjoyed by all because government taxes the work of some people, some business, and shares it to all of us \u2013 what is known as \u2018Distributive Justice\u2019<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The Goods and Services Tax (GST), \u00a0legislated by our parliament, and being implemented by the National Revenue Authority (NRA), as a consumer tax \u00a0charged to every consumer for a lot of products bought across the counter, is a better way to ensure that everybody pays some form of tax \u2013 that is \u2018Contributive Justice\u2019.<\/strong> More has to be done in the sphere of Taxation Justice, and, implicitly, meaningful independence for Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n

There is the likelihood of scary smuggling of goods into and out of the country, with government being denied enormous revenues. \u00a0On January 26 this year, during the celebration of World Customs Day at Customs House in Cline Town, the President of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, Babatunde Cole, warned that the introduction of the computerized ASYCUDA++ system (ASYCUDA++: created by the United Nations Conference on Development and Trade [UNCTAD], and known world wide as \u201cAutomated Systems for Customs Data\u201d) in the clearing of goods at Customs in the NRA \u2013making more efficient and transparent the import\/export business; making it almost impossible for corruption to take place in that sector \u2013 could lead to more smuggling by those who have been used to beating the system.\u00a0\u00a0 As we think more independently, all of us, especially our elected leaders, must think in terms of mobilizing millions of our citizenry to thwart smugglers, who one youth group, Youth Arise!!!, \u00a0has described as \u2018economic murderers\u2019.<\/strong> Indeed, even from our domestic taxes alone, Sierra Leone has the potential of being 100% financially self reliant for its governmental expenditures.\u00a0 The issue of plugging our tax holes, ensuring Taxation Justice, \u00a0must not be made into a partisan issue \u2013 an APC, SLPP, PMDC affair.\u00a0 Taxation Justice must be approached in an aggressively patriotic way, even, with nationalistic feistiness \u2013 if we are really to be joyous\u00a0 for our independence not being melancholy for 50 years of dependence.<\/p>\n

As we grow up to become\u00a0 \u201850 year old adults and not 50 year old babies\u2019, we have to popularize such studies:\u00a0 \u2018Administrative Barrier Study \u2013 Phase I, written by the Government of Sierra Leone by the Foreign Intervention Advisory Service (FIAS) of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and World Bank grop, March 2005\u2026., which states:<\/span><\/strong> \u2018Much work has been done in identifying other barriers to investment in the private sector in Sierra Leone, including economic and political instability, infrastructural deficiencies, administrative barriers and corruption\u2026.Throughout this investigation two common issues appeared consistently:\u00a0 (1) the economy operates on an informal and formal level, the former of which dominates; (2) lack of information availability and flow hampers the ability to invest and operate a business\u2026.(informal) economic activity seriously constrains economic growth and poses a threat to the rule of law, and the lack of information flow forms a strong deterrent to both domestic and foreign investment\u2026..\u201d. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

What the above simply means is this: there are tailor shops, boutiques, taxi and okada owners, carpentry shops, welding shops that are NOT paying their due income taxes, corporate taxes, Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) taxes; not contributing to the common tax pot \u2013 yet, are making demands on government for good roads, payment of nurses and teachers, electricity, etc.\u00a0 Here again, a Freedom of Information law<\/span><\/strong> would energize a lot of private sector institutions to monitor such informal sector institutions escaping the tax net. We cannot claim to be independent and continue with such disgraceful way of organizing our society.\u00a0 The British money we depend on to run our government are got from British taxpayers \u2013 ordinary British teachers, factory workers, hairdressers, hoteliers, financiers, etc.\u00a0 When we take care of such small matters as paying our taxes voluntarily, then, we have the moral authority to fight against the perpetuation of what late Guinean president, Sekou Toure, would rail against as \u2018neo-colonialism\u2019.<\/p>\n

Oswald Hanciles, Freetown
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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In 2011, Sierra Leone celebrates 50 years of \u2018independence\u2019 from the United Kingdom.\u00a0 Should we be celebrating \u2018independence\u2019, or, should we be mourning our festering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[673,692,1],"tags":[5618,5619,5483,5620,5621,5492,787],"class_list":["post-15309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","category-politics","category-uncategorized","tag-50th-independence","tag-contributive-justice","tag-freedom-of-information","tag-international-aid","tag-sierra-leon-50th-anniversary","tag-sierra-leone-news","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}